A/N: IT IS 11:58 WHERE I AM SO IT IS STILL TUESDAY AND YOU GUYS CAN'T GET MAD AT ME FOR POSTING LATE AGAIN. This chapter is sooooo fluffy and cute and I love them. Please read and review!

They're so pretty it hurts
I'm not talking 'bout boys
I'm talking 'bout girls
They're so pretty with their button-up shirts

Girls, Girl in Red

"I think I'm gonna do an Einstein pumpkin," Spencer said, flipping through pictures on Alex's phone. Spence had a phone that the team had pooled together to buy, but all it could do was text, call, and take pictures. They were a bunch of broke college students and 1 high school student, they didn't have a lot to spare.

"Sounds like something you would do," Alex chuckled. She was half-turned around in the passenger's seat to look at him.

"Al, if we get in a car crash, you would be fucked," James said with worry.

"Well then don't get in a car crash Dr. James," she teased.

"Actually, James probably wouldn't have any control over whether or not we crash. We have a higher chance of getting hit by a drunk driver," Spencer popped up.

"I'm just gonna turn around," Alex said with a smile, to James' visible relief. He was studying to be an ER doctor, it made sense that he would be anxious about something like that.

"What are you gonna do for your pumpkin Al?" James asked.

"I'm not sure, I might follow Emily's lead and just paint it instead. What about you?"

"I'm not sure yet." He had an idea, but whether or not he would have enough courage to execute it tonight was yet to be determined. Probably not, he thought to himself.

Elle and JJ were talking to each other in the back of the car, looking at something on Elle's phone. "I don't know, might be fun," Elle whispered to the high school senior.

"It would be funny but it doesn't feel like it should be funny, y'know?" JJ said.

"What are you two talking about back there?" Kate complained.

"I think I'm going to carve my pumpkin as another person."

"So like… branding a human with a stick figure."

"I mean… I guess. Don't really like that you put it that way. What are you doing Katie?"

"Don't call me Katie. The only person who gets to call me Katie is-"

"Ohhhhhhh yeah, only Tara can call you Katie," Elle interrupted with a mischievous grin.

"Shut up," Kate warned.

"Come on, why don't you just ask her out already?"

"Because she would say no!" Kate told her. "There is no way she would be interested."

"Jesus Kate, you really are clueless, huh?"

"I'm not clueless! I'm being realistic! Besides, she's straight." Elle laughed at that.

"Tara Lewis? Straight? Yeah right. As a lesbian, she is definitely not straight." Kate just rolled her eyes.

"Anyways, how are you and Maggie or whatever her name is?"

"Her name is Megan and we're good. Don't try and change the subject though. Why don't you just ask Tara out already?"

"I'm not going to embarrass myself if she says no. I value our friendship too much."

"Shortie, don't be a wimp. Just ask her out already, it's not that hard."

"I'm not that short! Why do you guys keep calling me that?"

"You kinda are short Kate," Spencer chimed in.

"Yeah Kate you're literally the shortest one here," James said from the driver's seat."

"Yeah well not all of us can be 6'5" Dr. James."

"That's besides the point though. Seriously, just ask her out already.

"I don't know. I'll think about it, alright?" Elle leaned back in her seat, a proud smile on her face.

In the other car, a similar conversation was taking place.

"Tara, I see you pining after her every damn day and I'm tired of it. It is suffocating," Emily groaned from her seat smushed between Hotch and Tara.

"I am not pining, Prentiss. Shut up."

"You are SO pining Lewis and literally everyone can see it. I've had old ladies say that they wished their partners looked at them like that. Old ladies are talking about your woefully hidden crush Lewis. Think about that. You are part of old lady gossip."

"I am not pining!"

"You are definitely pining Lewis," Derek said from the front.

"You're one to talk, Derek," Emily joked. Derek shot her a death glare in the rear view mirror. She just stuck her tongue out at him with a smile.

"Prentiss is right though Tara. Ask her out already."

"She's gonna say no though."

"First of all, no she won't, second of all, you'll never know if you don't try," Emily pointed out.

"Whatever. Why don't we talk about Morgan's obvious crush on-"

"Hey hey hey! Do not change the subject!" Morgan interrupted. Penelope shot him an odd look, but didn't comment, to Derek's relief.

"Although, if we're going to talk about people pining after people-"

"I am not pining!" Emily ignored her.

"If we're going to talk about mutual pining, let's talk about Alex and James. How many years has it been? And neither of them have made a move? It's ridiculous."

"Yeah not to mention that Alex is absolutely fucking clueless, despite being just as in love with the idiot as he is with her," Tara added, happy that the subject was off of her.

"I don't think Alex thinks she's worthy of love," Hotch said. Emily turned to him with an are you fucking kidding me? expression on her face.

"I'm just saying, that's why she so adamantly denies that anyone could ever be interested in her."

"You know, that's a fair point," Tara agreed. "Remember last year when that guy asked her out on a date and tried to kiss her and she still thought that he was 'just being friendly?'" They all murmured sounds of agreement.

"No fucking way, that actually happened? She's even more clueless than I thought."

"Oh Hotchner, that's just the tip of the iceberg. She's normally a little more aware with girls, but it still took her months to realize ELLe was crushing on her."

"Hold on, Elle had a crush on Alex?" Tara turned to look at the other three people in the car.

"Am I the only one who has bothered to try to explain what the hell happened here before he came along?"

"Well… yeah Tara-bug, you are," Penelope confirmed. Tara groaned.

"I'll fill you in on everything later. There's a lot. Are you straight?"

The question came out of nowhere, catching him off guard. "Uh… sort of?" He sputtered out.

"So that's a no," Tara commented nonchalantly. "Don't worry about it, you fit right in. All of us are queer in some way or another. These three are all pan, I'm queer, and you're… something other than straight. Actually, do we even have a straight person that works on our shift schedule?"

"I don't think so," Emily said, thinking. "I mean, I think Rossi's the closest thing but even he is a bit wobbly."

"True," Penelope confirmed. Hotch was perplexed. He was used to people talking about this stuff like it was poison or taboo, and here they were just casually discussing it. It felt… good. Safe. Happy.

"So what's pan?" Hotch asked. Since it was so rarely discussed, he was rather uneducated on most of the different identities.

"I don't give a flying fuck about what your gender is, as long as you're a decent person," Emily replied.

"What Princess said," Derek commented with a small nod. "We're back, by the way."

"None of this leaves the car, agreed?" Tara asked. She didn't want her crush on Kate getting leaked. They all nodded and Emily lightly bumped her shoulder against her in the small car.

They had spread out paper on the tables to keep the pumpkin guts from getting over everything, and now had their pumpkins lined up on the tables with their tools. Soon pumpkin insides were being scooped out, and Derek and Spencer somehow got into a war of throwing pumpkin seeds at each other.

Penelope and Derek, like the best friends they are ("we're JUST FRIENDS," Derek insisted. No one believes him) try and carve each other into their pumpkins. Derek accidentally makes a wrong incision and the entire thing falls apart.

Hotch had just gone for something simple and easy; a bat. He was done within 20 minutes and started walking around to look at everyone else's. Alex was doing the rose from Beauty and the Beast, Spencer was doing his Einstein pumpkin, although Alex had to help him on the more intricate parts. His hands weren't used to that kind of detail, but she worked it out and it looked amazing.

Elle had decided to do her pumpkin-on-a-pumpkin carving, with a drawing of a minimalist pumpkin pulled up on her phone as a reference.

Emily had a picture pulled up of Sergio in what appeared to be a park. He was sitting in a flower bed and Emily was carving the cat surrounded by the beautiful flowers.

"Of course Prentiss is going super artistic on us and flexing her skills," Elle joked.

"Yeah well I'm not athletic to save my life so you've got that on me."

"You also can't bake," Spencer piped up.

"Oh my god, that was one time!"

"Yeah, and that 'one time' got us a visit from the entire fire department," Alex reminded her.

Tara had been unusually quiet, sitting in the back alone, concentrated on her pumpkin. She hadn't told anyone what she was doing or let anyone see, but Emily had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with their conversation in the car.

Almost an hour later, everyone had finished carving their gourds. Emily's had turned out remarkably well, while Derek's… had turned out not-so-well.

Alex, the only one the group trusted to hold a lighter without catching the entire shop on fire, lit the tiny tea candles as the pumpkins were placed in front of the shop. Tara took her candle and placed it in her pumpkin which was still being hidden from view. She tapped Kate on the shoulder and gestured for her to follow her into the back room.

A few seconds later, a scream of happiness from Kate was heard. They all shuffled into the back to see what happened. Kate had her arms wrapped tightly around Tara's neck in glee, and Tara had a smile of such pure joy on her face that none of them had ever seen before. On the table next to them, Tara's pumpkin read, "Will you be my girlfriend?"

A/N:I like this chapter a lot actually! Also my tumblr is thestrawberrygirl if you wanna come chat!